


Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Shadowed Suspicion Volume II

by arcanedreamer



Series: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Shadowed Suspicion [2]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 | JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken | JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, Gen, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-02
Updated: 2014-07-07
Packaged: 2018-03-03 13:58:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 11,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2853335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arcanedreamer/pseuds/arcanedreamer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the story of the Slayer.  In the words of Giles, "Into every generation is born a chosen one... she alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer."  People like Giles were the Watchers, the English mentors of the Slayers.  At least...that was the story.<br/>Buffy found a way to unlock the sleeping power within all Potential future Slayers, and now the Slayers are many.  Those who survived the last battle helped to form the next Watcher's Council.<br/>Investigation of a certain stone mask sparks inquiries into the history of the ancient vampire relic, and some surprise discoveries are made along the way, including that of another legendary line of vampire hunters.<br/>In the aftermath of the trial, Buffy and the others must deal with Xander's absence, and meet new allies even as they find that there are those who manipulated the trial into happening are working against them...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. You Chose the Long Road

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Buffy isn't quite so sure about how the trial went, goes patrolling, and makes a new friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thus begins Part II. Again, feel free to comment on characterization/characters.

Dear Diary,  
I have no idea what's going on anymore.

            "Hey, Buffy." Dawn wanders into the kitchen while Buffy's quietly writing, trying to figure out how to describe everything that's happened in the past couple days. It's weird, even by Sunnydale standards. They aren't in Sunnydale anymore, but it'll probably still be with them for the rest of forever.  
            "Hey, Dawnie." Buffy pauses. "...Would you happen to know what happened to the cake in this fridge?"  
            Dawn turns to look at her with a face so innocent she has to have been the culprit. "No idea. Must've been the Slayers. You know, descending like the Biblical plague."  
            The Slayer smirks. "You know that I'm not fooled by that, right, missy?" Dawn makes a face as if she's just swallowed the world's sourest lemon, and Buffy grins for a second more before letting it fade away. "It's okay, though. I'm not going to yell at you too much. There's other stuff going on."  
            "What, like Invasion of the Body Snatchers Giles and Willow?" Dawn asks the question so bluntly that Buffy's nodding and agreeing without even having processed what she'd said. Once she realizes, she does a double take, and Dawn snorts. "What, you thought you were the only one who noticed, sis? They were super odd. And the other Slayer witnesses were kind of shady, too."  
            Buffy lets out a long sigh. "I'm kind of worried about what will happen when they realize we're not aliens like them." With their luck, this was all either them just using metaphor, or it could be completely real. "I mean, it's possible that they're completely right, but when I asked them to explain, Willow babbled for a bit and then just kind of broke down, and Giles began lecturing about prophecy. Which for whatever reason they were having the hardest time wrapping their minds around Xander as Prophecy Guy."  
            Dawn seriously looks her sister over, then grins. "I'm glad you actually decided to look around you, for once, Miss Oblivious."  
            The older sister rolls her eyes. "It's not like that. It's just...whenever any of us needed support, Xander was usually there for us. There's a reason we had him as the Heart in the spell against Adam. And Caleb mentioned something about 'The One Who Sees', and out of everyone, decided that he was the biggest threat and needed to be targeted. Coming from a crazy powerful priest working for the First...I've actually been kind of waiting for a prophecy or something. I've had time to think about this stuff."  
            "That's true, Sister-Who-Never-Visits." Painfully true, but by this point, Dawn was just asking for it.  
            Buffy dived for her, and they ended up in a tickle fight on the floor that lasted for several minutes before both were too worn out. They slowly regained steady breathing. "Sorry about that, but...I kind of feel like patrolling." At least there, she had power over who to punch, should any of the baddies come calling. "I promise I'll spend more time with you soon. In the meantime, do you think you can keep an eye on the doppelgangers or something?"  
            The younger sister grins. "Sure. As long as I get a cool codename."  
            "Don't you already have one, given to you by Agent Xander? Dawn Patrol, wasn't it?" Buffy fluffs her sister's hair and stands. Time for some answers. And if not answers, then at least some good, healthy soul-cleansing violence.

            It's generally eerily quiet as she wanders the graveyards, so much so that it's a relief when Buffy hears growling and thumps coming from inside a warehouse as she walks between graveyards. She enters, ready for a fight. And then the Slayer pauses when she realizes she isn't alone. These things aren't fighting among themselves, as she'd thought. They're throwing themselves desperately at a woman who appeared just slightly younger than Buffy. Her long red hair flows freely as she jumps gracefully and kicks one of the monster-y shapes into a warehouse wall with the kind of strength only a Slayer can muster. "C'mon, you aren't even trying!" she yells at them, spinning in a circle, blades in hand.             Ichory blood sprays in a circle, but she's already flipping up over the slumping corpses and charging the biggest, grabbing its gaping maw and slamming him into a wall.  
            Okay, she has a nice orchid purple top with purple jeans and boots, and it's definitely her color and looks good and sturdy. Like, it'd be easy to get blood out of and stuff.  
            Buffy definitely has to get fighting fashion advice from this gal.  
            She moves in slowly, not ready to actually fight until she's better assessed the situation, and her foot clanks gently against something. She glances down for just a second to see a long, jagged metal bar that looks like it's broken off something during the fight. It'll do as a staff, but if necessary it can be a spear, too. She glances back up just in time to see one of the hairy...things jumping at her, and barely manages to get her improvised staff up in time. The thing basically impales itself on her new weapon and gurgles unpleasantly. With the way the green-black ichor stuff sprays on her face, she hopes it's not going to poison her or melt her face off. Did she even manage to kill it, or...?  
            No, but she actually screams as suddenly the thing's flying off her spear-thing and into the wall. With the heavy sound it made and the way it's slumping over, it's probably dead. She turns her head a little, and there's the red-head, grinning cheekily over her shoulder. How'd she get there? "You're brave. I like you."  
            There's a mixed moment of irritation and awe. The woman's acting as if this is Buffy's first time fighting for her life. "You have a neat outfit. It's easy to get the blood out, right...?" She rolls under two of the charging fur-hunks and kicks one hard enough that it flies into the ceiling, hitting the other into the wall with the pipe hard enough that it lets out some kind of weird high-pitched scream. "What are these uglies, anyway?"  
            The woman's already launched herself above another group charging, partially visible through whatever light's filtering in from the really dirty windows and the glow of their green eyes in the dark. "Werewolves, maybe? Though I always assumed werewolves would be more attractive." Buffy loses sight of her until she appears next to the warehouse wall, tripping the monsters into the wall and laughing a little as they try to slow down their momentum.  
            The Slayer helps them along a little, slamming them as hard as she can with the metal pipe. "Please don't tell me you're one of those people that drools over vampires." Not that she wasn't one of them. The ranks of vampires definitely held some attractive members. But she'd had quite enough of vamp groupies from that little incident with Ford.  
            The red-haired Slayer shook her head violently and ran straight into waiting claws. The scream was quickly bitten off into cursing, and the offending fluffball quickly found itself punted into a wall. "Nope, no vamps, not for me. Bad family issues with bloodsucking fiends." She began cursing again in a language that might have been Japanese, not that Buffy spoke it.  
            "Same, I guess?" If you could count the Slayer heritage as a 'family'. That was interesting, though. Had this woman known about vampires when she'd still been just a Potential Slayer? "And they're definitely not werewolves. I've met a couple. They're still fairly ugly, but these look more like oversized rabid dustbunnies."  
            The other woman laughed a little, and yawned at the creatures, who charged again with a roar. Buffy began to run forward, worried. She was taunting them and she was hurt and backed into a corner. That wasn't a good...  
            Okay, and the things just hit another wall. She turned her head. So...the lady wasn't just extra fast, she was...what was she?  
            "Time to see how they feel about a little sunshine in their lives," the woman remarked from a catwalk, high up. She breathed in loudly, then began to exhale, standing on one leg with the other hooked behind without even the slightest sign that it was difficult. On a catwalk, where it was difficult to balance anyway. And both hands were behind her, clasped in some sort of ridiculous pose...either this woman was really, really confident, or she was completely and totally insane. Or both.  
            And she was starting to glow with a yellow light. What in the world had Buffy gotten herself into? Suddenly, the woman expelled all of the rest of the air in her lungs all at once, throwing her hands up toward the ceiling in a motion that should've had her falling over backwards but didn't have her twitch a muscle. Buffy hadn't noticed the disco ball hanging from the warehouse ceiling, but apparently the newcomer had, because her light tap sent the light flying all over the warehouse. The fluffmonsters didn't melt or dust or anything, but they did yelp and run out, so she was counting that as a win.  
            The lady cracked her knuckles, looking pleased with herself, and steps backwards. Somehow, she ends up in a spot not too far away from Buffy, but the Slayer can't see her move. How was she doing this? "....Why was there a disco ball in the middle of an abandoned warehouse?"  
            "Why not?" the lady asks philosophically, holding out a callused and slightly ichor-messy hand to shake. "Josephine Joestar. Nice to meetcha."  
            Well, she didn't manage to find any answers. Just a red-haired lady bundle of questions.


	2. Josephine's Stand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pretty much the same as the title.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you coming from the BtVS side, this might not make any sense to you. For those of you from JJBA, this is a little sneak preview of Josephine's Stand. Don't worry; Stands will be explained at some point hopefully soon. The costume was created in Champions Online and then edited with Photoshop.  
> This isn't the best picture of it--it's the one I tried to get artsy with--but it's what I got.


	3. Bloodline Legacy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Buffy takes Josephine to meet the Scoobies and learns what she's doing in England.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be really busy next week and into the beginning of the one after, so more chapters probably won't be forthcoming for a bit. I'll do my best to get back to it after that, though! Thank you, readers, for your interest and patience!  
> ~Dreamer~

            Buffy didn't know whether taking Josephine to meet the others was a good idea, especially with Giles and Willow acting so strangely. On the other hand, if she was a new Slayer...well, she should at least have to endure one Giles Watcher speech before they unleashed her back into the real world again. "I'm going to take you to meet some of my friends."  
            "Awesome! I'll never say no to meeting new people, especially if they can fight. Are they as good as you? What about style? Do they have clothes I can borrow?" That speed talking without breath was pretty familiar.  
            Buffy laughed and tried to answer the questions as they walked, though she couldn't keep going without breath. "Well, it depends. I definitely know some of the other girls would fight you if you tried to get into their closets. You're allowed to go through my clothes if you want to, since that's pretty flattering. There's definitely a lot of people there who can fight, but I don't make a habit of fighting my friends, just slapping them or occasionally hitting them if they're being seriously stupid."  
            They actually made it back to the mansion pretty quickly, but then, they both were pretty strong when they put their minds to it. Josephine gasped loudly. "Wowww, it's huge! Are you rich or something?"  
            "I'm...not, actually. I could buy more clothes and go out to eat more often that way. It just happens to be our headquarters." How to go about explaining the Slayer Organization? She hadn't really done any of the recruiting so far.  
            "Headquarters? Does England have a superhero group now? Can I join?" Josephine was grinning, eyes sparkling as she craned her neck up to look at the mansion.  
            "Uh..." Most of the new Slayers hadn't shown this much enthusiasm. "I'm a Vampire Slayer, and there's a lot of others in there..."  
            Josephine's eyes gleamed. "Sign me up! I might as well get money or at least a badge for something I just do normally anyway!"  
            When they walked in, Giles was leaning against the wall and Willow was sitting in the chair in the corner. "I thought it was time that we discussed the events of...who's this?"  
            "Josephine Joestar, newly given the title Vampire Slayer! Nice to meetcha!" She bowed low.  
            "Buffy, I don't believe that I requested that you go find us more Slayers. We have enough as it is. Now, there's business we must discuss, so if you could come back at a future date..." Buffy bristled. He didn't even know her, so why was he just dismissing her just like that? She almost spoke up in her new friend's defense, but Josephine beat her to it.  
            "Mr. Giles." How'd she know that name...? For once, Josephine has a serious look on her face, all traces of humor gone. "I realize this will sound pretty bizarre, but then, you guys are used to this sort of thing, right?" She flashes an apologetic smile. "I'm not here by accident. I was actually out here looking for you guys. I happen to be looking for my son."  
            She laughed, a little self-consciously, at the looks she received. "I know, I know. I'm pretty sure I'm unrecognizable like this. I was, I suppose, um...trapped, in a life not my own and forced to live it for twenty years. By an...erm...spell?" She was struggling for words like a person speaking a foreign language, but then stopped and smiled. "And I'm pretty sure you know my son well. I mean, your faces are actually kind of familiar. I introduced myself as Josephine Joestar, but you probably know me better as Jessica Harris."  
            Giles pauses in the middle of polishing his glasses. Willow gasps loudly, while Buffy just stares with her mouth open. This can't be the same lady....can it? The red hair matches, and even if this spell had somehow been undone and she'd reverse-aged...she acted completely differently. From what Buffy had heard, Mrs. Harris was argumentative, drunk, and somewhat forgetful, depending on the precise level of alcohol she'd had that evening-nothing like the laidback, slightly crazy woman standing before them now. Yes, people changed over time, but this was a woman who'd never let the world beat her, and Jessica Harris was a woman who'd given up long ago. Of course, it was still possible, but...  
            "M-Mrs. Harris?" Willow stammered.  
            Josephine smiled. "Hello, dear. I have to thank you for looking after my son so well, considering...well, I wasn't in a position to do so well myself."  
            "My dear Miss..." Giles began.  
            "Joestar," she supplied helpfully, grinning like a maniac.  
            "Why would anyone curse you to such a life? I'm afraid I don't see a motive." He'd stopped cleaning his glasses.  
            An annoyed look entered her black eyes. "Isn't it obvious? For someone you can't kill, ensuring that they're completely out of your way is a great plan." Then she smirked. "And we Joestars tend to tick off a lot of people, and we're pretty tough to kill." Something in her eyes—she wasn't saying everything. But then again, they'd only just met, if Jessica Harris was just a role Josephine had been forced to play for so many years. Giles and Willow didn't seem any more forthcoming since when she'd left, either, and were exchanging glances that didn't bode well.  
            Josephine narrowed her eyes. "Look, I appreciate your caution, but I have to see my son. I have to apologize for what he went through, and...well, given that he showed no sign of his Joestar heritage before now, I can only assume that his powers began to wake up along with my true identity. He doesn't know how to use them, and I...I can't just..." She bit her lip. "Please. My son needs me."  
            She could be lying, or delusional. Giles and Willow certainly believed one of the two. The name Joestar was definitely...well...it sounded...odd. But every instinct of Buffy's tells her to believe this story, and ignoring her Slayer instincts never seems to go well.  
            "Xander's not here right now," she confesses, and is instantly met with a warning look from Giles and a gasp from Willow.  
            "Buffy!" how could you?, her look finishes the sentence.  
            "What?" Buffy asks, annoyed. "It's not like I'm going to just say 'he's actually here, but no, you can't see him'. That's just cruel." She looked over at Josephine, who, at the least, cared about Xander, even if nothing else was actually true. "We don't know where he went, either. I wish we could help you more." Or, really, that Giles and Willow were inclined to helping, at the moment, but...well, it's not like she could be choosy in this situation. Hopefully, they'd get over being weird soon.  
            Josephine frowned and opened her mouth, but apparently read something out of the situation and shut it again. She looked away. "Well, I'll try finding him, though I'm not sure I'll be any more help."  
            "Aren't you his mother?" Willow asked, narrowing her eyes.  
            One purple boot scuffed at the floor, but Josephine's gaze was back up again, holding Willow's steadily. "Look, I hate to admit it, and I'd like to punch Jessica in the face a couple of times because I deserve the pain, but I really neglected the kid. And suddenly I'm back to being myself and twenty years old again and have all these vague memories, but I didn't run. It's weird thinking I suddenly have a son now when I should be in college hanging out with my best friend. Sure, I didn't ask for a kid, but I'm sure as hell not going to wish I didn't have one or that he's dead, and I'm not going to run out on him or neglect him again, because he's family and you don't do that to family." Willow tried to hold the steely gaze, but failed and glanced down somewhere through the speech.  
            Josephine paused, then grinned. "Oh, and would you happen to have some food you wouldn't mind me having? Big fights like that always leave me hungry. I'm also not too picky."  
            Buffy laughed, hard. "You're definitely related to Xander," she managed, and even Giles' eyes softened.  
            "Our side kitchen is right this way..."  
            "Side kitchen?! Wow! What're you feeding here, an army? ...Hey, this sword looks really cool..."  
            "Don't touch that!"  
            "Relax; I know how to not break things if I try!"  
            "Somehow, I don't find that reassuring..."


	4. Lazy Sunday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Josephine explains a little more and gets a few answers herself.

            Josephine, it seemed, had found herself completely at home in her new environment. Buffy found her relaxing by a stream in the back, bare feet dangling in the cool water. She was eating a peach messily, the juice getting all over her face and the clothes she'd borrowed (which she'd chosen after practically burrowing through the Slayer's closet with abandon), but judging by the grin on her face, she didn't really care.             Was she planning on doing the laundry? Because otherwise, that would be rude.  
            "Hey!" she waved energetically enough that she almost fell into the river, but appeared blissfully oblivious to that. "Buffy, right?"  
            The Slayer had been searching for Josephine this entire time, but now that she'd found her suddenly felt at a loss for words. Weird, because being shy wasn't a trait in her personality. "That's right."  
            Josephine bit into the peach slowly, deliberately. "So," she drawled, wiping the juice away with the back of her other hand, "...something happened with my son that scared him off. Something that no one wants to talk about. Am I right?"  
            The goofy smile had lost its ridiculousness, the relaxed eyes sharpened. The eyelids drooped a little lazily in the sunny summer afternoon, but the mind behind it was sharper than ever.  
            Buffy felt bold again, and sat down beside her. "Well, I'm not sure exactly what went down, and those who know don't seem to be telling anyone. Ordinarily I'd just pester Giles until he stopped being all secretive and British..."  
            That brought back Josephine's amused grin, as well as a comment of "that's my girl!" The reaction was somewhat jarring considering that the woman had a British accent too. Then again, Buffy kept forgetting when she wasn't talking that this was either her homeland or she was very good at accents, since she didn't seem either stuffy or bookish, and the Slayer couldn't imagine her wearing tweed either.  
            The Slayer finished her thought: "...but with the way they're acting...they think there's something huge going down, and if they haven't told me about it yet they've decided I don't need to know about it yet, or even that it's better I don't know about it. There's always the possibility of shapeshifting demons, of course."  
            That earned a small squeeze of Josephine's hand, as well as a more wistful smile than she'd given so far. "It's rare that I run into people with lives as weird as mine. It's enough to almost make me feel at home again," she explained. "Though demons are kinda new."  
            Buffy blinked a little. "But...you didn't say anything about the vampire thing..."  
            "That's because vampires are old hat." Josephine finished off the peach and threw the seed into the river, glaring at it as if it was a monster responsible for the agony and deaths of thousands. "Unfortunately. Nasty buggers."  
            "Maybe it's a Hellmouth thing." Buffy speculated, getting a shrug in return. Of course, she'd run into demons elsewhere, but definitely not in the same concentrations. She could see why someone would miss them elsewhere, if they weren't looking for them.  
            "I only vaguely remember that, so I can't really comment," Josephine admitted.  
            Buffy found herself staring at the redhead. "What...does that mean, exactly?"  
            One of Josephine's hands clenched involuntarily, though she'd tried to hide it at her side. "Could be either the spell or the alcohol, or probably both, but my memories of all that are kinda fuzzy. Of being Jessica Harris, I mean. Then again, I was an entirely different freaking person, so I shouldn't really be surprised. I mean, some aspects, like the marriage, are better left unremembered, but still...I missed seeing my son grow up. That's kind of sad. Even though I didn't have or want a son when I was twenty. And maybe I can relate to him better now." She sighed. "Ah, well, time spent angsting is time wasted making yourself unnecessarily sad, I say!"  
            Buffy sighed, then got slapped over the back of the head. If she hadn't been a Slayer, that would've really hurt. "Stop! Angsting!"  
            "Sorry, I..." she breathed deeply, taking care not to sigh again. "There...ahm, seems to be some confusion as to whether we were in an alien-body-snatcher Twilight Zone episode." She didn't feel comfortable saying any more, but luckily Josephine seemed to understand that.  
            "I see. So some pretty wacky things went down, and it's kind of an internal thing." She smoothly went into the next sentence. "Did Xander...it feels weird saying that—did he suspect that, or...?"  
            "No, he was more obsessed about—" Buffy stopped midsentence, realizing that she'd almost been tricked into revealing more information. Well, technically, she had been tricked into revealing something, at least.  
            The fiery fighter's jaw clenched, and she couldn't meet the Slayer's eyes. "Well...I'm glad that there was at least one person who didn't automatically condemn him. Whatever happened to the benefit of the doubt, I wonder. Though if they do happen to be right and something thought it would be fun to masquerade as my son..." The dark grin on her face completed her sentence better than any words could have.             Buffy frowned. Something was nagging at her.  
            "Still, it's probably my fault, anyway." Buffy frowned and opened her mouth, but before she could even ask Josephine was continuing. "After the spell got released, suddenly his mother wasn't just a nobody anymore. I mean, his entire biology just...rearranged, I guess. Which explains something I was wondering about—is he the son of Jessica, or Josephine? Given that Jessica gave birth to him, but technically Jessica doesn't even exist, and..." She caught the oncoming case of crosseyed confusion coming over her listener and stopped. "I thought maybe I'd show up and have to explain Jessica was never coming back, instead of the much more confusing version I'll have to give him. Instead, he really is a Joestar, he's really mine, but he's not here. Not that I'd stop being responsible, but...I just can't articulate it properly!"  
            She wasn't Joyce, Buffy thought with a pang. She genuinely cared, that was obvious. And maybe Buffy wouldn't react very well if she'd woken up twenty years in the future or thereabouts and realized that she had a grown kid during that time. But she was also...complicated. Kind of like Cordelia, only not a snide popular girl. Cordy was nice to hang out with. Sometimes. But Buffy got the same problematic 'I'm not sure how to feel about this person' confused feeling being around Josephine that she got hanging around with 'Queen Cordy'. The lady wasn't hostile, but she was a woman on a mission, and wasn't above using manipulation to try to achieve her goal. And it wasn't as if she meant harm—as far as Buffy could tell, all she meant was good, for all of them, but still...the way she was going about it wasn't sitting right. Then again, most of the situation wasn't sitting right in general.  
            Maybe the problem was that she wasn't acting like a mom, just a relative. They didn't always see eye to eye, but Buffy would like to think she had a special connection with Joyce.  
            "Well, I think I should go look for my son tonight. Fancy looking with me?" Josephine asked, stretching then bouncing to her feet. Keeping an eye on the woman was a pretty good idea, and the mystery and secrets were beginning to drive Buffy crazy, so she nodded with a smile.


	5. Proof of Innocence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Giles and Willow finally explain their side of the story.

            "I don't quite feel ready to go searching for Xander yet, though," Buffy announces as they approach the house, and gets the other woman staring at her as if she's raving about UFOs in the sky. "I think I need to properly accessorize."  
            This statement gets a boyish grin from Josephine. "Oh, I wouldn't ever complain about that. The proper accessories are always a must for any party. If I borrow any, I promise I'll take very good care of them."  
            Buffy rolls her eyes and can't help the sarcastic remark. "Better than my clothes, I would hope."  
            "You wound me, madam!" Miss Joestar states dramatically, clutching a bit at her chest as she mock-stumbles toward the back door, and it comes as a bit of a shock, because Buffy's pretty sure Xander's done the exact same thing to her before. She tries not to react much, and opens the door.  
            When she stops walking, though, Josephine walks right into her. The woman begins to mutter something, but the Slayer's not paying any attention to her anymore. Buffy's staring at Willow, who's crying on the couch near the fireplace and has been doing so for a while judging by her reddened eyes. The redhead glances up, sees Buffy, and begins crying louder. "H-he wasn't...he wasn't...l-lying!"  
            "Who wasn't lying about what?" Buffy asks quietly, finding movement for her legs again, crossing the room.  
            "Xander!" Willow practically shouts, then becomes completely incoherent.  
            "Willow, I'm afraid that I haven't seen any sign of—Ah, Buffy. We've been looking for you." Giles enters the large living room. "We may have made a serious miscalculation."  
            "We?" Buffy asks with a raised eyebrow.  
            Giles coughs, but to his credit is serious and doesn't look away in shame. "Er, Willow and I. The situation had to be dealt with quickly and with discretion, so the fewer who knew, the better. We were, of course, working with prophecy, which is notoriously difficult in the first place. Not that I'm making excuses."  
            "I think it's time you explained yourselves." Buffy crossed her arms and went to lean against a wall. Josephine joined her.  
            "Quite right." Giles is usually super-serious about everything, but Buffy's learned to discern between the different modes of serious, and he hasn't taken his glasses off to clean once. This is bad. Or, if he'd been here, Xander would've said, 'this is of the bad'. "I won't apologize. We were acting under the best information we had at the time. Of course, we may have only set the prophecy on its course, rather than averting it, but we couldn't have known then." He sighs heavily, a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders. "The prophecy, given to Willow, was vague at best, and she doesn't remember all of it. We've been using various magical techniques to try to get a clearer picture of it, and one phrase that stood out clearly was 'no one is'. We were able to extend that phrase to 'no one is who they seem', or the equivalent of that in Yaf—in an ancient language that you probably don't actually care about."  
            "And because of that, you thought Xander wasn't actually Xander?" Buffy can't tell whether to be disappointed, angry, or just incredibly confused.  
            "Well. Yes." Giles, it seemed, was just as aware that it sounded somewhat stupid when she put it that way. "It wasn't as if that was all. He wasn't acting like himself."  
            "Because of the spell that was undone," Josephine interrupted, her fist clenched by her side again.  
            Giles nodded, an apologetic frown on his face. "We know that now, but we couldn't know that at the time. We simply didn't have enough information. Perhaps it would've made more sense to wait until we had more, but in many occasions in the past if we'd done that it would've meant the apocalypse coming and going unchallenged, and...well, simply the end of the world. Given the circumstances..."  
            "You're idiots," Buffy glared at Giles and Willow. "You hear me, right. You're idiots."  
            "Yes, yes, thank you, Buffy, I think we realize that well enough now." Ah, the all-suffering Watcher sigh. Giles walked over to the other end of the couch, taking up a few things sitting there that Buffy hadn't noticed. "Xander was telling the truth at the trial. The parcel with his proof arrived today. This old faded book is filled with notes on the stone mask—it is, in fact, the threat Xander kept assuring us all it was.             Though in places they are difficult to read, as it's handwritten and rather old—I'd say at least a hundred years, probably more..."  
            Josephine started. "Trial...? S-stone mask? You had a stone mask here...?!"  
            "You're familiar with it, I take it." None of the derision, now, just a grim look. "For your information, Buffy, there's some speculation about it being a torture device, but also a few rushed lines at the end about it being a device to create vampires."  
            "Without siring?" This was news. "And it's missing? ...That's not good."  
            "It's missing?" Josephine looks ready to tear out her hair. "Seriously, how did you guys handle whatever weirdness went on in Sunnydale that I don't really remember?"  
            "Often, with quips and plans made up on the spot," Buffy answered honestly.  
            "I tried to provide more direction, but..." Another suffering British sigh.  
            "W-wait, I almost remember...hang on." Josephine practically sprints over to the couch, even though it's not too far away, and then with a happy cry snatches up something shiny. "It's my necklace!" she exclaims happily, putting it on quickly with the ease of long use. She examines the few other items on the couch, then suddenly feels all the incredulous stares on her and slowly reddens, scratching at her earlobe.             "Aah...I missed it?" she asks sheepishly. Buffy approaches more slowly. It's pretty and simple, a small star in silver with the words 'shine like a star' on it, a simple silver chain to match. "It's kind of goofy, but awesome," Josephine tries to explain again, before throwing up her hands and giving up.  
            "It is pretty," Buffy reassured her, flipping through a few of the pages and surprised to realize that the words, though faded, were in a language she actually understood. At some point, Giles had made the impression that everybody who had been old enough didn't speak English. Though that could just reflect his reading material.  
            "I think we're missing something, though. I mean, I put together this catch for myself, shortly before the St-I mean, the spell took effect. And Xa-my son never left to go get this together, right?" She looks around for confirmation, and though she gets none, her question's answered anyway as the others make the same connection.  
            "He was telling the truth about calling in an outside researcher. Who, though? I wasn't aware that Xander knew too many—of course, he could've discovered someone in Africa, or a traveling man with an interest in the esoteric in Africa..." Giles looked as if he was just going to stare into the wall forever.  
            "And what about the weird thing that happened at the end of the trial?" Buffy asked.  
            "What weird thing?" Josephine was staring between them, frustrated.  
            The Head Watcher didn't react for several long moments, before stirring and nodding. So he had been listening after all. "Mmm, that's also a possibility. To clarify, Miss Joestar, we put your son on trial. It was meant to be informal but intimidating, to have him explain what he'd been doing or ferret out the imposter, but it didn't work as planned."  
            "I got that!" Their new ally was getting a bit impatient.  
            "I wasn't finished." It'd been a while since Buffy had seen her Watcher getting testy with someone else, and anytime it wasn't directed at her was a bit of a relief, honestly. "At the end, we were attacked by a young man with strange powers. When we awoke, Xander was gone, so I believe they escaped together."  
            "He had water or something that put us to sleep," Buffy added helpfully, since they'd apparently decided to trust Josephine Joestar as an ally.  
            "Sounds like a St-strange thing," Josephine agreed. She'd been correcting herself a bit lately.  
            "And what about the witness?" Buffy asked, because it followed that if Xander had been telling the truth, the witness had been lying, or at least mistaken about whatever she thought she'd seen.  
            "That has...yet to be ascertained." Giles admits.  
            "What're we going to do?" Willow asked miserably, hiccuping a little.  
            "Whaddya mean, what're we going to do?" Josephine asked, turning and putting a hand on her hips. " You're asking that as if there are several choices, none of them good. Or just no choices. And both of those are wrong. There's one choice, and it's a great choice. We can stop angsting and actually go do something for a change. We're going to go find him, explain, and make sure no harm comes to him from this prophecy thing. Because we Joestars make our own fates. Try to tell me I'm wrong."  
            "Well...I'm afraid you're right, Miss Joestar. Of course, we can't lose hope. Thank you." Giles smiled politely. "I believe the sooner we start, the better."


	6. Bye Bye Beautiful

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A search-and-rescue mission for Xander doesn't quite go as planned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a tie-in with "Chapter 2".

            In the end, a number of Slayers, particularly the African ones that Xander had found, also volunteered to help, so they ended up having several search parties.  
            "It would probably be best if we divided our parties in such a way..." Giles continued, but Buffy wasn't really listening.  
            She looked over at Josephine, who was running her fingers through her long hair and practically growling. "It's going to be fine. Xander may not look it, but he knows how to take care of himself."  
            Josephine beamed with satisfaction for a whole of three seconds. "That's a Joestar trait," she proclaimed proudly. Then she returned to her scowling, frustrated expression of before. "I'm just..." she sighed. "Okay, I may not exactly be a Slayer, whatever that is. I don't know for sure, because I'm not sure what that entails, but... What I mean to say is, I have another power. And I'm pretty sure Xander will have it too, now, and I'm worried about him because he doesn't know how to control it and what if it ends up hurting him? I mean, he doesn't mind fighting, right?"  
            Buffy stared at her friend's mom, eyebrow raised. So she really hadn't been telling them everything. Was it just a matter of trust? They hadn't known each other very long, after all, even if Jessica had counted. They'd hardly seen either of Xander's parents, ever. Or was it something else...no, she didn't want to think that. "No. Usually he just throws himself into danger whether he can make a difference or not."  
            "That's good." The redhead genuinely looked relieved, before she realized what she'd just said. "I mean, not necessarily that it's good, but...if you have no fighting spirit, then a power that's basically just meant for fighting's not going to be good for you, right? I'm...going to give him a stern talking to about rushing into things recklessly."  
            The Slayer started laughing uncontrollably, having, eventually, to bend over, clutching at her stomach. "Y-you...you do that...." she managed somehow, breathlessly. The thought of Josephine of all people lecturing anyone on not rushing into things....well, if nothing else, it was ironic. She got a pouty look in return.  
            She became aware of a disapproving stare that has become very familiar over the years. "Were you listening at all, Buffy?"  
            "Sorry, what?" She can't help the snort, again, but breathes deeply to try to stop.  
            Giles sighed, and, as per their routine, condensed what he'd been saying into something short and understandable. "I was saying that we should have a Watcher or older member of the 'Scooby Gang'..." Buffy noticed the slightest hesitation, probably because Giles found it a silly name, "...on each group of searchers."  
            "I agree." Her easy agreement made her mentor sigh again at the effort needed to get such a simple response, but given what'd happened with Miss Witness, they couldn't be that careful.  
            "I'll help if you think it's a good idea. Otherwise, I can just hold down the fort," Robin Wood offered.  
            "Well, I dunno about you, Mr. Ex-Principal, but I'm gonna go look for X." Faith? When did she get here...? No, probably not the most important thing right now.  
            "Actually...I don't know, I get this feeling that we can't trust all the Slayers here. I'd feel better if we had some people we can trust back here in HQ." There. Finally, someone had said it, and...yeah, okay, so it didn't make her feel any better to have said it out loud, but...at least it had been said.  
            The dark-haired slayer smirked. "I'm glad you trust me, B. Maybe I'm doing something right." She turned to go back inside, but then paused. "You probably know this already, but if a Slayer's gone wicked bad, it ain't gonna be pretty. Watch your backs."  
            "You too." Faith had really come a long way.  
            "Five by five, B." The other Slayer waved without turning around and went back inside.  
            "What about me?" Watcher Wood was waiting expectantly.  
            "Er...probably best for you to stay as well. If there is a problem, we'll need more than one person we can trust here. Now that I think about it, this would be a perfect time to try any number of nefarious schemes, but it's not as if we can abandon Xander, either..." Giles was beginning to sound downright angry. He might need that fire before the night was through, if things kept going the same way.  
            "I got it. You go complete your rescue mission." Wood tried to make it sound like a piece of cake without using phrases that would really make everything more difficult, which was a nice gesture, because Buffy was getting the feeling that it really wasn't going to be anywhere near that easy.

            "I hate it when I'm right," Buffy mutters quietly to herself. They'd been tromping around for hours, looking for Xander. He hadn't been back to the mansion—none of his things had been touched. He hadn't been to the movies, not that he probably would if he was on the run and thought his friends wanted him dead. He hadn't been to any of his favorite restaurants, or, more realistically, fast food places. Giles, before they'd split up, confided that he'd been making calls, and no one answering to Xander's description had gotten on boat, train, or plane. Which meant making the rounds to all the motels, hotels, and anywhere else Xander might be staying. Boring, frustrating, and every single negative result got Josephine a little more tightly wound, until they had to leave her with Miss Witness and another Slayer outside to avoid frightening the hotel staff. It took long enough that the sun set, and with that a shadow fell over Buffy's heart. Which led to them standing in the middle of a moonlit town square, surrounded by female vamps. It's weird that they're all female, but then, that's not the only weird thing in the picture.  
            "Right about what?" Josephine manages to sound completely normal and unflustered, despite the trail of blood down her arm.  
            "Trouble." They stand back to back, ringed with enemies. Buffy's lost track of Miss Witness and the other Slayers in the sea of vampires, and hopes that none of the new blood has died on her watch. Again.  
            "Don't be. It's a hoot and a half." Oh, good grief, Josephine and Faith do not need to rub off on each other. "Besides, it's a good sign. These aren't normal vamps, so we're probably getting close." That's...really terrible logic, but Buffy doesn't have the heart to correct her, especially as they're in the middle of fighting for their lives.  
            Buffy had already stabbed one of the vampires with Mr. Pointy, and the stake + vampire equation for whatever reason wasn't adding to dust, unlike what years of experience suggested. The Turok-han hadn't returned, one because the hairstyles were trendy, never mind the fact that they had hair, and two, getting the stake through the rib cage wasn't he hard part.  
            The problem was that these vamps just didn't seem to care. "I'm having a few difficulties here."  
            "They might be my kind of vampire. Try destroying the brain—though beheading usually makes things easier. Also fire." Buffy can feel the other smoothly move into a jump kick at her back.  
            'Your kind of vampire?' she mouths, incredulous. Josephine had shown nothing but distaste for vampires. "...Where do you think there's fire around here? 'Cause, you see, I must be blind."  
            The Slayer can hear the fierce grin in Josephine's reply. "We'll see about that. I'll be back in a tick, okay."  
            Buffy opens her mouth to protest or ask Josephine what she means, but a group of three Slayers charges the vampire horde in front of her, knocking her backwards. Rather than falling on Josephine, as she expects, she topples backward and smacks her head, really hard, against the pavement.  
            Her vision greys out slightly for a second, but she watches as Josephine somersaults over a group of female vampires, her long red hair gracefully moving like a cheerleader's twirling baton. The British accent is unmistakable as she shouts, "Bye Bye Beautiful!" ...Even if that doesn't make sense.  
            She's even more certain she's started hallucinating as she sees a beautiful woman with wings and pointed ears and a lovely long dress appear in midair. Despite the beauty, there's something untouchable, intimidating even, about the apparition. She's hard to see, and Buffy has to squint.  
            It's much easier to see what appears where Josephine's flip seems to be aiming, at a rusty iron gate that leads to a central green, mini park-like area, complete with fountain. Buffy will never get used to the amount of green spaces still left in London.  
            Two massive trees grow in the span of seconds, intertwining in a way that didn't exactly seem natural, forming intricate knots. A hedge, imposing, wild, appears, ivy spreading over the whole. The knotted tree limbs quickly become two massive doors, which swing open as Josephine hits them with her feet. The ghost lady smiles gracefully and follows.  
            Guys, the rescue party needs a rescue party. The thought drifts across her mind, a cloud on a windy day, and then she's out.


	7. Across the Styx

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Buffy doesn't wake up dead, much to her surprise, and she and Josephine confront the Mohawk Slayer.

            "Hey, come on. Did I say you were just allowed to give up when I left? You're just as much the heroess as I am. Stop taking a nap on the job, Slayer."  
            Buffy sits up, still a bit woozy, to see Josephine's upside down face above her. She thinks for a moment she sees worry in those black eyes, but the expression, if it had been there at all, is quickly replaced by the usual grin. Buffy's brain is a bit slow to realize that Josephine's not hanging upside down from the sky but is rather standing over her, hands on her hips. It's oddly easy to see, considering that this is night and all.  
            It takes even longer for her to realize that a few Slayers are holding torches, while others either behead or crush skulls with clubs. Some of the vampires are on fire, but most are just taken care of in a businesslike, cold manner that Buffy doesn't recognize. Sure, she hasn't worked with many of the Slayers recently, which...okay, that's weird, why hadn't she, since she had the time...but the emotionless robotics weren't anything she remembered. What had Giles been teaching them? Was that what the previous Watcher's Council had wanted?  
            Worse, since when had they become the stuffy British jerks who'd only thought of her as just another pawn in an ancient game of chess?  
            The square is filled with dust that's beginning to be carried away by the wind that's picking up, but worse...there's a couple bodies. Not as many as she'd feared, but still—it never gets easier.  
            "Apparently we managed to find a thing, even if we didn't find a Xander. But that can wait." Josephine picks up a hammer she'd picked up from somewhere with a grin, but it seems somehow dampened.  
            "You got that right." Buffy has a bad feeling, the same bad feeling she's had since the start of all of this. But this isn't the time to get distracted. She matches Josephine's grin with a smile of her own, picks up the nearby bloodied sword, and charges the nearest vampire with a quip on her tongue.

            "We're just lucky no bobbies showed. The torches were a bit of a risk, and we probably shouldn't hang around too much longer," Josephine suggests, and surprisingly enough she's not grinning like a madwoman anymore. She actually seems tired as she cleans the wound on her arm with a handkerchief she borrowed from another one of the Slayers. They all seem rather exhausted, but without complaint they gather up the three fallen to transport back to HQ.  
            "What exactly did I miss?" Buffy's sick of being the clueless one.  
            "Well, I'm sure the other Slayers will tell you, exactly, but...I'm pretty sure they recognized some of the vampires." Miss Joestar glances at the ruined clothes, then at Buffy with an apologetic look on her face, but the Slayer is beyond the point that she's worried about an outfit. She tears off a bit of cloth from the pants and ties a makeshift bandage as if she's done it a hundred times before.  
            "Recognized?" That can only mean...  
            "Yeah, hate to say it, but we got a few weak enough to have gotten turned by the uglies." Buffy and Josephine look up with equal distaste—and it's the Mohawk Witness.  
            Josephine's the one who keeps her cool, and has to hold Buffy back. "It's not exactly as easy as that. These aren't your kind of vampires that have to run around turning each other. Someone had to have used the mask on them. My guess is, they trusted someone they shouldn't have. You, maybe, since you don't care about their lives?"  
            The Mohawk Witness snorted. "You make me sound like a psychopath. Just because I won't risk my life for theirs. Nothin' personal, but not everyone has a hero complex."  
            "Why'd you say that Xander took the mask?" Buffy's a lot calmer now. Well, no, that's a lie, but her anger has cooled.  
            "He's still MIA. And even if you guys seem like you've taken back your theatrics at the trial, did any of you think about maybe possession? Some vampires can do that, right? So who says he was even aware of everything he was doing? He seemed pretty out of it." A slight smirk. "You guys are really too quick to jump to conclusions, sheesh."  
            Unbidden, the fiasco with Dracula rises to mind, and...they hadn't figured out who that guy was, yet, who'd taken Xander and interrupted the trial. If he was a vampire, an ancient one, and had gotten Xander to do his bidding without even realizing it...it was unfortunately plausible.  
            Josephine, too, looks uncomfortable with the possibility, and not very skeptical. Neither are good signs, because if there's anyone who's a bit of an outsider in this, it's her.  
            "Or maybe he just moved it somewhere safe to protect his friends. He's the sort who'd pull an idiot move like that, isn't he? He's a guy with a hero complex. At least, that's the way they tell it at lunch." The witness Slayer shrugs. "I just tell it like I see it."  
            She...didn't have a reason to lie. Did she?  
            Buffy needed a clear head. And maybe not a concussion. That probably wasn't helpful, either.  
            "It's true," a Slayer with a slight accent approached, sending a glare at Mohawk Witness Girl. "Not the rubbish she's talking about—the fact that I knew one of 'em. A Slayer in my squad. Probably wouldn't have gotten far—hated the sight of blood, but I told her I'd look out for her. She nearly gutted me. I reckon she spent a little too long playing with her food." She puts on a brave face, but her voice trembles a little.  
            Josephine swore under her breath. She suddenly looked ready for another fight, and Buffy understood how she felt. Given the number they'd been attacked by, whole squads had probably been wiped out. By one of their own. Or Xander. The thought made her feel a little nauseous. Or maybe that was the concussion. No, don't think about it too hard. They had to fall back for now, evaluate who they could trust...try to get in contact with the other search parties! What if Giles or Willow or anyone else was hurt?  
            Josephine nodded when Buffy explained they should retreat for now. "We need to regroup, yeah. I hate leaving my son out here with so many vampires on the loose, but...at this point, I think I'm probably more of a target and might only draw attention of the bad kind to him."  
            _Hang in there, Xander._

            The bookstore with the wooden star had a sign over the door that read 'Closed', but it wasn't completely empty. A tanned older male in a fastidiously maintained suit peered over pince-nez at a note written in the 'new acquisitions' area of the binder. "What on earth is a 'Joestar'?" he asks the air, which holds no answers.


	8. This is War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Josephine and Buffy find Giles's rescue group and work through some of the aftermath of the trial.

            Josephine stays quiet on the way back, slightly discouraged, maybe, but more than anything else exhausted. Buffy had begun to wonder whether the lady ever shut up. Not that she was annoying, but Miss Joestar had been a bottomless source of cheerfulness and energy, it didn't all seem like an act. It still didn't, but the night was a lot darker without chatter to fill up the void.  
            Yet another similarity between her and her son, actually. This grimmer version was a lot harder to deal with. Even though taking some things seriously was probably a good thing, the minute either of them got serious, the switch in attitude was shocking. Even if the person beneath the smile or frown was the same. But all the Slayers, including Buffy, were just as tired, and she couldn't muster the strength to actually begin a conversation or anything. The oppressive stillness, silence, and darkness would prove to be spooky.  
            Somehow, even with the few Slayers carrying the bodies of their fallen comrades, they make pretty good time. Fast enough they make it to the area Giles and his group were searching. Discussion about returning to HQ had been quiet but earnest, but Buffy wasn't going to abandon any of her friends, ever. If some of them had been attacked, then a reasonable assumption was that they weren't the only ones in danger, even if, possibly, the biggest army had been sent against them. A few of the Slayers were heading back, if they weren't sure they wanted to fight this war. The ones carrying the bodies back were going too, since they couldn't fight and they didn't want to abandon their fellows even in death. They deserved a proper burial.  
            It's somewhat shocking that it's rather easy for them to find Giles and his group, but then, judging by the wounds on a few of the Slayers and Giles that she can see, they've had their run-in with the Slayer-Vamps too, and have returned to practically the starting point, where they'd all split up into their respective search groups.  
            The fact that Giles has been hurt makes Buffy uncomfortable. He's her mentor, closer to her than her dad. He can't die.  
            And then her heart jumps into her throat. There's another vampire behind Giles, and he hasn't noticed. He's off kind of by himself, and no one's close enough to get there in time. If only she hadn't lost her crossbow in the confusion...she'd still probably be too far away, but at least the range would give her a chance...  
            Buffy blinks and almost misses it. This time, she knows that Josephine is—had been—right next to her. And somehow steps sideways, and then is suddenly across the plaza right behind Giles and the vamp, and almost casually she stakes the bloodsucker in the brain. It shrieks, and now the Watcher finally reacts, as it dissolves into a pile of dust that's quickly taken away by the wind. It's not just moving fast, or dodging, or sneaking. She couldn't have possibly gotten across the square that quick. At least, not normally. Maybe she hadn't been hallucinating after all, and whatever Josephine had used was related to whatever it was Buffy had seen while lying on the pavement.  
            Of course, deciding how much to trust her foggy brain was a different issue, one that needn't be decided just yet. She rushes over to Giles's side, the other Slayers following.  
            Giles is sharp and catches that Josephine couldn't have possibly appeared like that without some sort of supernatural technique, but other than a quick, searching glance, doesn't question her about it at the moment. "Thank you. I believe you saved my life."  
            "Save my son's, and then we're even." Josephine sounds winded, bending forward slightly to try to catch her breath.  
            It's then that Buffy notices her sister kicking her heels, pouting written all over her body. She marches over to glare at her.  
            "You don't have to lecture me. I already had that from Giles, and from a few of the Slayers." Buffy's about to go off anyway when she notices that Dawn's lip is trembling. She's scared, but covering that in a veneer of teenage rebellion, even though she's not really a teenager anymore. It's taking everything she has not to burst out crying.  
            "You've seen the consequences...but you're still probably going to do it again, aren't you?" Buffy asks quietly, quietly enough that they can both deny this conversation ever happened later.  
            Dawnie sniffles and bites her lip.  
            "Just...be careful." If she hugs her sister now, they'll both start crying, so Buffy just manages a comforting hand squeeze. "We should probably teach you to take care of yourself, too, huh?"  
            "It's about time you realized trouble finds me wherever I go, and it's not my fault." Disbelieving eyebrows make her falter. "Well, only about half my fault."  
            "Now that, I can believe," Buffy states, dryly amused. It's a sign of her maturity, she thinks, that she hasn't gone ahead with a lecture anyway. Giles should be proud.  
            Speaking of Giles, she should probably ask him exactly what's happened. And maybe suggest that they find and warn the others, and return to HQ, because it's not as if huge battles can exactly be subtle and she's had enough dealings with the police for a lifetime, even if it was luckily few. Besides, she feels eyes on her, and that doesn't exactly make her feel comfortable. She turns, and Spike's arrived. This particular vampire wouldn't try to reenact the scene when they'd arrived, thank goodness. It's good to see him, though she was surprised when he didn't sign first in blood on the rescue brigade sign-up sheets. His strange friendship with Xander, Mr. All-Vampires-Are-Evil, was weird but made a strange kind of sense. His next words, though, explain that he was helping in his own way.  
            "I spoke to some of my contacts in the Underworld," the blond vampire reports. "None of them knew about the whelp, but there's been portents about something coming for months. Practically got thrown out of a blind seer demon's place just for asking about a stone mask. It's got them rushing around like headless chickens, or just cowering like they've been cornered by a black dog. Whatever this is, we'd better find the boy quick."  
            "Hate to stick up for Simone, but...her own survival's important to her. Turning someone when you're not a vampire would be dangerous, right? When they all attacked, she was here with us." The Slayer from earlier approached, still with a ready glare at Mohawk Witness Girl, who smirked.  
            "See? She knows what's what." The Slayer slapped the other on the back, who looked ready to growl at the touch.  
            "It's not that easy, an' you know it." Spike, eyes gaining the slightest tint of yellow. "How'd they get turned, that many, with no one noticing? Must've been done in Slayer HQ, and if there was anyone there not supposed to be, someone would've noticed."  
            "Maybe the ones who noticed got vamped too," Simone shrugs. She doesn't seem at all threatened by the vampire in her face, accusing her.  
            "Maybe, and you'd know that, wouldn't you?" A predatory grin. Spike is pulling out all the stops. "Forgot to mention, a friend of mine mentioned you asked for a place to stash over a hundred vampires. Odd thing for a Slayer to say."  
            Simone doesn't react for a long few seconds. Something twitches out of the corner of Buffy's eye, but when she looks there's only a window curtain, swaying in the wind. No one is standing there, but all of a sudden her Slayer instincts are screaming that they're out in the open, they're vulnerable, and the first attacks softened them up, made them easier prey. She's probably overreacting, but at the very least they have people watching and might end up with policemen too and this isn't the place to have this confrontation...  
            "Well, aren't you clever?" Simone drawls, the smirk growing. "I should've paid more attention to your attack dog, Slayer. His bark's nastier than his bite, and his bite's nasty enough. I had you going there for a while, though." By the way Josephine's hand is twitching, she wants to wipe that superior smirk off Mohawk Witness Girl's face.  
            Buffy's breath catches in her throat. "A-are you confessing?"  
            "You, on the other hand, are thick. And weak." Despite the fact that Simone was surrounded by people who would happily beat her into a pulp for what she'd done, judging by the way some of the onlookers were eyeing her, she remains smug and calm. "So afraid to use your power, so afraid of yourself and who you are. You haven't accepted that we're death, and with the power we have, we can do anything. Be anything. You're still a slave of the Watcher's Council, even though they're all dead and you're alive, and the new version's just a bunch of imitators." Simone stretches, actions somehow more full of menace than a threatening glare. "I'm nobody's slave."  
            The tension and silence hung thick and heavy, waiting for the brave fool thoughtless enough to take the first step.


	9. Uprising

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Josephine and Buffy must fight for their lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're already at the end of Act II!

            Josephine steps forward, rage driving her. Buffy moves forward to pull her back, but the sound of breaking glass and inhuman screams of rage fill the air, surrounding them in as heavy a cocoon as the earlier silence. Miss Joestar flips backwards and kicks away one of the monsters charging them. The Slayers form a protective circle, but not all of them are quick enough to deal with the humanoid monstrosities attacking them. Buffy hears a high-pitched scream that's quickly cut off, and hopes that that Slayer is only wounded, unlikely as that is. She wipes off the sweat from her face.  
            Just as suddenly as it begins, it ends, and a silence more menacing than the first descends once more. Simone's holding up a hand, eyes dancing with merciless laughter. "See, Buffy? No more of this 'with power comes responsibility' crap. You're still playing at being the hero, still stuck in medieval times. You talk about girl power and being a Slayer, but none of that means a damn thing. You're still stuck worrying over boys, and as for disobeying? Hah! You're the most obedient soldier I've ever met. Welcome to the real world, where the strong rule and the weak wither." And with that speech, she pulls out a pistol.  
            Buffy's brain halts completely, unable to understand this. How did she even get a gun? Those certainly weren't handed out when they were arming the Slay—  
            She realizes that her right shoulder's on fire and grunts loudly, gritting her teeth. She's had worse. Dying for instance. Her brain's being slow on taking inventory, though, so she doesn't realize that she doesn't have a fatal wound for a few vital seconds. Being shot, Buffy thinks vaguely, hurts a lot more than they show on TV. She's been stabbed and mauled before, and no wound is fun. But yeah, wounds certainly beat dying, hands down. Or coming back from death, the second time. She decides now, that out of the types of wounds, she kind of prefers not-bullet. Other types of wounds don't bring the same breath-stealing agony that a bullet does.  
            She hears a howl and manages to make it to her elbows. Yeah, that's Spike, in full Game Face, charging Simone. Well, at least it's someone to whom getting shot isn't a big deal, but Simone's a powerful, strong Slayer, even if she is a complete psycho.  
            "Don't worry, Buffy. I'll get you out of here." Andrew. Not exactly someone she'd ever thought she'd be this happy to see, but she manages a smile for the troops.  
            "Don't worry. I won't die on you. That'd be rude." She feels better, now that she has something to focus on besides the pain. I'm stronger than the pain, she tells herself. And judging by how much this hurts, that's really, really strong.  
            "And you were never rude to me, even when I was a prisoner-guest." Andrew's terrified, but he's willing to put himself in the middle of a battle for someone else, now.  
            The spray of blood covers their faces, and the Watcher falls over backwards with a yelp, staring helplessly with only a slight amount of comprehension at the Slayer that had dived in front of the blow meant for them. This Slayer was the one who'd spoken up against Simone earlier. She grins a bloody, triumphant grin as she holds on to the sword in her stomach. "I failed to save my sister. I didn't fail this time."  
            "Your sister?" Simone scoffed. "You're not even related." She doesn't have the gun anymore, Buffy's glad to see, but the fact that she's not still fighting Spike sends a thrill of fear through her. He can't be dust, not now.  
            "You'd never understand." Buffy had never gotten her name. Never even bothered to ask. She should've asked; should've somehow been ready, stopped this...but at least, she'd never forget this Slayer. Never forget the look of peace and triumph, like she'd won the only moral victory, the only victory, she'd ever need.  
            The shape that now tackles Simone is Spike, bloody and raging. He's still alive. Or unalive. Either way, he's not dust, which is the important thing.  
            She tries once again to tug the sword from the Slayer's body, but it's held in a death grip and isn't moving, even as the Slayer sinks to the earth in front of Buffy. Simone lets out a curse and scrabbles in Spike's grasp, but the vampire's enraged and out for blood.  
            Buffy's barely able to follow the wrestling, but she does notice when the psychotic Slayer's hand gets free and starts to move toward the back of her pants. It's where Buffy keeps a spare stake, sometimes.  
            "Spike!" she shouts in warning, and summons the strength to kick at the free hand. She can't really get speed or momentum, because it's barely within reach and it's at a weird angle, so it's not enough to, say, break the wrist, which is a pity, but at least Simone abandons her efforts, swearing. Her warning somehow got through the bloodlust, and Spike springs back, yellow eyes wary.  
            Josephine barrels in their direction, and Simone curses again, staring at them all wildly, then darts away, charging behind some of the attacking monsters. They're hideous. She'd call them zombies if they weren't hulking powerhouses. The bodily deterioration is about right.             Josephine's frustrated and angry and favoring her left arm, but gives up her pursuit. Unlike Simone, it's not a question of survival, but of protecting others.  
            Buffy finds herself being lifted, and her mind begins drifting. It's warm, and she's done at least as much as she can for now. The fires, the destruction, the dead bodies....the war isn't over. This is just the first battle, and she's not really sure if either side won.  
            But for now, she can rest.

            "Buffy! You're okay! N-no, don't try to move too much!" Willow, beginning to babble. This is a familiar, safe feeling.  
            She opens her eyes to see Spike, Andrew, Giles, Josephine, Dawn, and several dozen Slayers trying to stay out of the way in various nooks. Willow's by her bedside, holding her hand.  
            "I wouldn't have provoked her quite like that if I'd known." Spike tried to sound airy, above it all, but the slight amount of guilt rings through.  
            "Provoked?" Buffy raises an eyebrow.  
            "A false accusation for a false accusation, but I was betting it'd smoke her out." Josephine's gaze sharpened, but the pleased twitching of the corner of her mouth indicated she approved wholeheartedly. Even if Spike was a vampire.  
            "Spike, I don't think Simone hid an army of zombies and vampires—"  
            "Slaypires," Dawn interrupted. Buffy stared at her incredulously. "What. Xander's not here to give things ridiculous names, so I'm filling in. My work here is done."  
            "Slaypires," Buffy continued, "...if she hadn't been planning to kill us anyway. We're lucky she didn't succeed, but it's close. And I'm out of practice. I need to start training again."  
            "Later," Willow stated with a warning look. "Once you've healed."  
            "I'd be up for that," Josephine volunteered, starting a chorus of 'me too' for sparring partners. Buffy grinned. They'd be ready next time.


End file.
